Little Beetroots
by Confetti Leaves
Summary: It is not beauty that endears, it's love that makes us see beauty. Co-written with ArwenLalaith


**AN: Written from the prompt on _staringout_ on LJ. _"Write about the beauty in the eye of the beholder."_**

The team stood before the nursery, watching the newborns sleep soundly. JJ and Garcia had the biggest smiles on their faces, while their hearts melted at the sight of beautiful infants cooing peacefully in their sleep. Hotch had a small smile while Rossi had a little smirk on his face as they silently watched the babies.

No one said a word, as if afraid that even the smallest sound would wake the babies.

But the resident genius had a frown of his face when he heard Garcia whisper to JJ about how beautiful the newborns were and the frown deepened when JJ agreed. He understood a lot of things, but this was one of those things he didn't think he'd ever understand.

"I still don't get it," he said quietly.

"Don't get what?" Rossi asked.

"Babies..." he shrugged, "I don't understand what people see about them that they find attractive. I mean, they're red and pudgy...they look like little beetroots."

Garcia stared at him in disbelief, looking somewhat offended. "No, they do not! They're beautiful."

"If your definition of beautiful is bald and ugly," Reid repeated his sentiment from years ago good-naturedly.

"They're not ugly!" Garcia hissed, "You looked like that when you were a baby."

"I never said I was beautiful..."

Hotch and Rossi watched the whole exchange in amusement, chuckling quietly while Garcia and Reid continued to argue about the babies' appearance.

Reid tried to explain his argument. "I mean, look at that one," he said, pointing to one of sleeping infants in a bassinet near the back. "It's the size of a loaf of bread, bald, with blotchy red skin...like a beetroot," he repeated.

JJ bit her lip and frowned. "You mean that one in the pink blanket, at the right-hand corner of the back row?"

"Yes!" he replied excitedly. "You see it too, right? Don't you think she looks like a beetroot?"

"You'd better hope the proud parents don't hear you," Hotch said warningly.

Again, Reid shrugged, "It's not like they'll know who I am."

"Reid..." JJ said slowly, "That's _Morgan and Emily's_ daughter."

For a moment, there was a brittle silence in which Reid's face visibly blanched, his eyes growing to the size of saucers. "What?" he asked in horror.

"Yeah."

"But...that's not possible!" He did a double take of the baby girl and shook his head. "Morgan and Emily are good looking. That baby doesn't look anything like them!"

"Babies grow, Reid," Rossi said with a smirk on his face, clearly amused by Reid's alarm.

"So, she'll grow up to be beautiful – that doesn't mean she is now," he said slowly.

Reid jumped when Morgan turned the corner, pushing Emily's wheelchair, clearing his throat dramatically. Garcia grinned and quickly went over to give the new parents a hug. "I'm so happy for you guys," the blond tech whispered excitedly.

After a round of congratulating handshakes and hugs, a nurse brought the sleeping girl to Emily, who carefully cradled the child in her arms, her tender gaze trained on the baby. "She's the most beautiful baby in the world, isn't she?" Morgan whispered proudly, purposely nudging Reid who looked uncomfortable by his question.

Emily shook her head and smiled, "Derek, spare him."

For a moment, he tried to maintain the appearanceof being upset, but couldn't help breaking into a loving smile when he looked back at his daughter. "We heard what you said, kid," he said, returning his attention to Reid.

"Oh my God, you guys," he said, his expression panic-stricken. "I'm _so _sorry. I didn't mean that... I wasn't saying... I only meant..." he stammered.

"It's alright, Reid," Emily murmured softly, "It's okay if you don't think she's beautiful. Afterall, beauty is in the eye of the beholder." It was clear, though, that most, if not all, of the others saw beauty in the tiny pink-swaddled bundle. "Do you want to hold her?" she asked at length.

Reid immediately looked awkward and hesitant, just as he had when he'd been offered Henry to hold. "Umm..."

"Hey, no fair!" Garcia interjected, "He just insulted the attractiveness of your child and you're letting him hold her first?"

"Garcia, I don't care what anyone says," Emily whispered tenderly, her finger tracing her daughter's tiny features, "She's here now. That's all that matters."

"Yeah," Morgan smiled, wrapping an arm around his wife's shoulders. "Besides, I know she'll grow up to be beautiful like her mommy."

"It doesn't makes sense," Reid muttered, frowning.

"What are you talking about, Reid?" Hotch asked, tearing his eyes about from the happy couple and their tiny bundle of joy.

"'Beauty in the eye of the beholder'," he elaborated. "That phrase doesn't makes sense."

"Sure it does," JJ said, "It means everyone sees something different when they look at something – whether or not something is aesthetically pleasing is purely subjective."

"That's not true," Reid argued, "Humans are evolutionary predisposed to have a common ideal of beauty. We're pre-programmed to find attractiveness in features indicative of fertility and lack of genetic mutations. For example..."

There was a practically audible collective eye roll as he got into his spiel. "Think of it this way," JJ interrupted, "You'd find your own child beautiful no matter what he or she looked like."

"But that's illogical..." he argued.

Emily rolled her eyes. "Reid, I was in labour for fifteen hours before I gave birth to her. I'd think she's beautiful even if she looked like a blobfish. Besides, she's my baby – that's more beautiful than anything."

"What the hell is a blobfish?" Rossi asked.

"The blobfish, also known as Psychrolutes marcidus, is a deep sea fish in the Psychrolutidae family," Reid rambled on quickly, happy to explain. "It's rarely seen by humans because it inhabits the deep waters off the coasts of..."

"That was rhetorical."

"Sorry."

"No more root vegetables, fishes, or any other icky creatures," Garcia sighed, then smiled, watching the infant over Emily's shoulder. "This princess is beautiful. Period. The fairy godmother has spoken." She glared playfully at Reid, as if daring him to challenge her so-called authority.

"Do you want to hold her or not?" Morgan asked, taking the infant from Emily.

"Are you sure?" he asked hesitantly, "I mean, she's so little and I'm, you know, not exactly coordinated..."

"Oh, come on," Morgan insisted, "Hold your arms out." Reid still looked skeptical, but reached out for the girl nonetheless.

"Be careful," Emily cautioned, protective maternal instinct already in over-drive, "She's really tiny."

But Reid seemed to be holding his own as the baby stretched and yawned, blinking her big brown eyes a few times blearily as she awoke. "Well..." Reid said slowly as she wrapped her tiny fingers around one of his, "I guess she's not _completely _unattractive..."


End file.
